Maravi

Are these allowances or bribes?

Are these allowances or bribes?
By Editor
Thursday December 20, 2007 [03:00]

It cannot be denied that the allowances being paid to those participating in the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) are excessive. Even President Levy Mwanawasa knows very well that what our people who have been nominated or selected to participate in the NCC are earning on average exceeds even his salary as President of the Republic of Zambia. Why should this be so? The truth is these huge or excessive allowances were designed to attract participation and stem off opposition or boycott of the NCC.

And this being the case, it is unacceptable arrogance on the part of President Mwanawasa to denounce those who are questioning these allowances. This is not his personal money; it is taxpayers’ money and every taxpayer in this country has a legitimate right to question the use of such taxes.

Instead of denouncing those who are questioning or criticising these allowances, President Mwanawasa is supposed to explain and justify these allowances to the taxpayers of our country. But with this type of arrogance and lack of humility, it is not possible for President Mwanawasa to take time and justify these allowances. This is simply because he doesn’t truly see himself as a servant of the people, employed by the people to carry out their wishes.

It is clear that, in truth, President Mwanawasa sees himself as a master of the people. And he does not see the money he is spending on the NCC as people’s money; he sees it as money belonging to his government, a government he owns and controls and therefore no one should question how he spends government money. How else can one explain this arrogance, this lack of humility by President Mwanawasa?

It is dishonest and unfair to try to mislead the public by making them believe that those who were calling for the constituent assembly didn’t care about expenditure. Proponents of the constituent assembly never suggested paying huge allowances to anybody. And we challenge President Mwanawasa to prove his claim. Let us learn to dialogue and discuss with each other in an honest, fair and humane manner. There is no need to tell lies on matters that are very clear. This type of language doesn’t engender confidence and trust in our political leadership; it actually undermines them.

Our people have many unsatisfied needs and it is their desire and in their interest to ensure that public funds are utilised in a thrift manner. Thrift should be the guiding principle in all our government expenditure. We have to learn to practice economy in whatever we do. We must particularly advocate diligence and frugality in whatever we do; we must pay special attention to economy.

We don’t think our people are opposed to seeing their fellow citizens serving on the NCC improve their lives. But certainly not in this way; not through unjustified excessive allowances. We say unjustified excessive allowances in the sense that no one, including President Mwanawasa himself, has been able to justify these allowances. No one is saying people shouldn’t be paid anything.

What our people are saying is “pay but justify; if you can’t justify don’t pay because if you do so, you will be questioned, you will be criticised”. But because of arrogance and lack of humility, because of lack of respect for the fellow citizens he is elected to serve, President Mwanawasa doesn’t think anyone should question such allowances, the allowances he has decided to give those sitting on the NCC. Without a justifiable explanation, to us these allowances appear to have a character of bribes. And without justifiable explanation, it will not be unfair for us to accuse President Mwanawasa of corruption over these allowances. We say corruption because when we talk about corruption, it is not simply just about the stealing of public funds but also the abuse of public resources to achieve one’s desires, arrogance and lack of humility.

And since we all feel very strongly about corruption, that is, us and President Mwanawasa, we ask him to justify these allowances and answer all the questions our people are raising over these allowances. If they are justifiable, no one will have any problems with our people receiving such allowances as long as the government can afford to pay.

These are the things our people mean when they talk about accountability. What we need is an enthusiastic but calm state of mind and intense but orderly work. We shouldn’t wait until there is a crisis to explain things. The concerns being raised are legitimate and they seek honest and polite answers. We should always use our brains and think everything over carefully. A common saying goes, “Knit your brows and you’ll hit upon a stratagem.” In other words, much thinking yields wisdom.

Clearly, there is no need to indulge in personal attacks, vent personal spite when things can easily be explained. Some of our leaders are increasingly becoming arrogant and high-handed in their behaviour towards the people, always denouncing the people who are supposed to be their masters, but never caring much to explain themselves; always seeing fault with others but never their own shortcomings, and always welcoming flattery but never criticism. We should all endeavour to eradicate these faults. All these things become encumbrances or baggage if there is no critical awareness, if we cling to them blindly and uncritically. That is a truth we must always bear in mind.

Our political leaders must not assume that the masses of our people have no understanding of what they themselves do not yet understand.

And it is time our leaders realised that the only way to settle controversial issues among the people is by the democratic method, the method of discussion, of criticism, of persuasion and education, and not by the method of coercion, intimidation, manipulation or repression. We must undoubtedly criticise wrong ideas or practices of every description. It certainly would not be right to refrain from criticism, look on while wrong ideas and practices spread unchecked and allow them to monopolise the field. Mistakes must be criticised and poisonous weeds fought wherever they crop up.

However, such criticism should not be dogmatic, and the metaphysical method should not be used, but efforts should be made to apply the dialectical method. What is needed is convincing argument. To criticise people’s shortcomings is necessary, but in doing so we must truly take the stand of the people and speak out of whole-hearted eagerness to protect and educate them. To treat critical citizens like enemies is not fair and just.

If we look at things this way, it is easy to understand why some of our people are questioning the allowances being paid to NCC participants. It is also easy to understand why we feel President Mwanawasa and his government need to justify these allowances, lest they are dismissed as bribes.

Labels: ALLOWANCES, NCC

posted by MrK @ 4:00 AM